BenTrem tweeted on 2010-06-27

• I say "Global Gulag", NYTimes' David Sanger writes "Democracy, Limited" > http://bit.ly/b5BDliI < *shrug* He has a position to protect. ;-) #
• I wonder how # TeaBaggers trash talk this: "Veterans Caregiver Bill Signed Into Law" > http://bit.ly/dAVEEg < #
• # G20 already making history: arbitrary suspension of Canadian civil rights along the fence line i.e. arrest powers expanded w/o process. #
• Mainstream media is so painfully lame; reporter freaks out because someone lit a flare. Now big deal is some vuvuzela. *sigh* # G20 #
• # G20 protest has inherited from the past; civil-society trumped by BlackBloc. "End of History" was premature! #
• @ rmoldovanyi "Violence against corporate property" has been BlackBloc 101 since the beginning. in reply to rmoldovanyi #
• @ ProudoftheUSA A lousy time for you to act holier than thou. in reply to ProudoftheUSA #
• @ RoisinB But the immediate effect of massive police presence was to reduce those non-violent actions. So BlackBloc have monopoly. in reply to RoisinB #
• In terms of simple tactic, cops would drive BBloc up against the fence, not away from. Pin / contain / arrest. #
• FWIW it wasn't BlackBloc cadre being harassed by police. Most likely spokespeople for civil society. Shut them down => violence. #
• @ ProudoftheUSA Actually I was thinking back to such as A16-DC/WB-IMF … basically the same stuff. in reply to ProudoftheUSA #
• @ rmoldovanyi Wasn't saying one way or another. Just that it's been explicit for a decade or so. Starbucks and banks, for e.g. in reply to rmoldovanyi #
• @ RoisinB One of those "Wow is real life ever sticky!" sorta paradoxes. On the other hand mayhem is easy/simple. HeyHo, thus it is. in reply to RoisinB #
• @ katecarraway The analysis runs something like, "Main-stream press seldom covers the issues in depth then plays up violence." Ironic, nae? #
• @ katrinahass The history of relations BlackBloc / civil society is revealing. The tactics seem incoherent, but they're not idiots. in reply to katrinahass #
• CTV commentator says cops should be firing tear-gas … which shows you need hamster IQ to be pundit. # G20 #
• @ AngelicaMunster CTVNews and CBCNewsworld are also both at streeth level. # G20 in reply to AngelicaMunster #
• Anybody who's surpised at BlackBloc presence has been asleep since 1998. # G20 #
• @ ProudoftheUSA A16-DC = April 16, Washington DC. (2000? 01?) Same stuff, but against WB/IMF. in reply to ProudoftheUSA #
• If I had the time I'd collect stories rwindows smashing rampages after championship games. (Reason means considering context/history.) # G20 #
• If I had the time I'd collect stories windows smashing rampages after championship games. (Reason means considering context/history.) # G20 #
• @ ProudoftheUSA cheers in reply to ProudoftheUSA #
• @ katecarraway Yepp yepp … you and xx% others. So my main argument against BB: they aren't representative, but take things over. in reply to katecarraway #
• You've seen those big nasty plastic bullets? I got mine (AR-1) 2AM doing a med-evac in QC. The cop who fired at me couldn't care less. #
• @ tylerconium The dynamics can actually be mapped, from past events. Side-effect: lotsa folk get turned off PERIOD. sad # G20 in reply to tylerconium #
• @ oliviachow IMNSHO keeping folk away from the fence guarantees this inchoate rampaging. We're hardly on new ground here! best #
• @ katrinahass BlackBloc members against property damage? *shrug* Whatever you say. in reply to katrinahass #
• @ aliliebs CBCNewsworld has been on the street since Queen and Spadina. in reply to aliliebs #
• @ kiwinerd You can tell the helicopters are military? Or maybe you don't know, and don't care that it matters. C'mon … in reply to kiwinerd #
• @ shawnfbowman heh … and Indymedia isn't an organization either. Very precious use of terminology. in reply to shawnfbowman #
• @ ChrisLaBossiere Yours is one of the top tweets. I can't help finding that sorta sad. in reply to ChrisLaBossiere #
• Imagine this: serious people think you can wall off city core and create no-go/police zone w/o pissing some people off. Naive? or foolish? #
• @ ChrisLaBossiere Oh, hey, I heart you. I'm usually in the middle of it (media/medic) and it pisses me right off. Doesn't make for analysis! in reply to ChrisLaBossiere #
• One thing would settle things down big-time: a good loud rally / protest / demonstration. BB guerilla tactics may rule this long day. # G20 #
• "We need more security" … now how's that for dumb. $1B = what we have. We should spend what, $5B? Reactionaries are /dumb/. # G20 #
• @ kady In one big demo we had mashalls doing just that: behind each BB group, doing a fast cleanup. in reply to kady #
• ReTw @ ShambhalaPubs – Look for Pema Chodron on this Sunday eve's @ ABCworldnews — around 6:30 PDT. # dharma #
• @ kiwinerd You said. So: you know? Transporting VIPs would circle around? *shakes head* in reply to kiwinerd #
• @ YummyMummyClub "the majority of protesters are dressed in black and hiding their faces" Really? Majority? You must have TV on cellphone. #
• CTVNews has looped images of window smashing interspersed with flaming cruiser. BlackBloc bad, main-stream media pure and good. *sigh* #
• @ kiwinerd By way of context: I'm reactive to suggestions of military intervention in civil affairs. Iz whott. in reply to kiwinerd #
• @ CBCNewsDesk BB has been a presence since before N30-Seattle/WTO … research should be easy! in reply to CBCNewsDesk #
• @ cbcconnect Hey Mark, have a sit-down w/Jaggi and Maude on BB tactics. This is same old same-old … discourse re: alternatives! #
• "The violence is continuing … reports of 2 police cars burned." That's not continuing, CTV, that's "earlier actions have ended"! #
• TV coverage is now tight-looped so most violent confrontations are being shown dozen times in 5 minutes. "Reporting"? #
• @ CTV @CBC The way you're looping video right now on NewsWorld and CTVN should be criminal. Total distortion. /You/ contribute to hystria. #
• How to lie with facts: cherry pick from 2hrs of multi-source and cut that in with streets scenes. # yuppies show their true colors. #
• Parting shot: BlackBloc don't hide behind sophistry. @ CBC and @ CTV are now in full propaganda mode. Shame. # G20 #
• Over and over again footage from hours ago … "informed public", is the concept new to you? # Shame #G20 @ CBC CTV #
• Looking at @ CBC and @ CTV you'd think downtown TO was in all out rampage mode; cutting real-time in with footage from hours ago. # G20 #
• Oh, look someone smashing a bank window! 1,728th time that bank has been attacked; how odd! # shame @ CBC CTV # G20 #
• @ cbcnews – Mayor of Toronto is on TV. You should buy one … it's kinda neat. *sigh* #
• heh … Mayor of Toronto was taken by surprise re: "5 meter rule". Read about it in the paper. (NB: Arbitrary is mark of police state.) #
• Mayor asks "Are we going to 2nd guess every police decision?" Well that's odd. Cuz answer is "Yes". Is what civil society does: ask & talk. #
• @ CBC @CTV both went from tight looping of most violent scenes presented as though live to very, very long talking head interviews. # G20 #
• @ CTV – Classy! Cut the major's last question because the reporter was foreign. Gawd … you've no gag-reflex left, have you. #
• @ CTV 's take on things: "Can the leaders be kept safe?" Yaa, right … like there was a massive insurgency. # propaganda #G20 #
• @ ormistononline How is it not a lul? BB in short time smashed windows and torched cars. That's done. Stopped. How "not a lul"? #
• Classic Georgetown University "Social Communications" tactics: 1st tight-loop violence, then jaw, now (after tone is set) do retrospection. #
• @ CTV If somone smashed your picture windows, would you say your house was "destroyed"? Why do you do that sort of thing? # propaganda #G20 #
• # Social psychology – I concentrated on "discourse variance". Bullshitters show their true colours when they're knocked off script. # G20 #
• # G20 Multiple police cruisers left un-manned at various points in the protest area. (A clever tactic that went pear-shaped?) #
• # G20 – International press was rivetted by TV coverage … of the world cup. @ CBC and @ CTV coverage fail to rationalize $1B security budget. #
• French Pres. says he's spend 1/10th on security. Gee, only $100M. heh # G20 #
• @ CBCNewsDesk Anyone who couldn't anticipate BB is simply inept. (No, not tactic … of course not. But /presence/.) in reply to CBCNewsDesk #
• "Framework" for # G20 economic stimulus policy. Well, start with evidence-based instead of schmooze factor. Oh, wait … just me being silly. #
• @ CBCNewsDesk Has anyone there even 1ce made slight reference to fact that this is paradigmatic BB action? Mother Corp requires empty heads? in reply to CBCNewsDesk #
• # G20 – Spontaneous gathering would do the trick. Like L'Ilot Fleuris in A20-QC. #
• # G20 – Police horse-charge around Queens Park. NO PEACEFUL ASSEMBLY ALLOWED! Everyone is BlackBloc, now, apparently. #
• # G20 – Hand drummers to Queen's Park! #
• So now we see: do police get to criminalize the entire area? That would make it easy for them … pepper-spray and sound bombs next. # G20 #
• Dear Mr. Mayor – You figure folk will just melt away? evaporate? You seem sane … get a f'n grip; don't pull a Pinochet. # G20 #
• What the bourgeoisie can't do: relate as though human. Power, rank, orders, dictates, contracts … failing that: nothing. Void. # G20 #
• # G20 – Back in the day you had folk like us (hand-drummers), Food Not Bombs, Raging Grannies; without that, BB is it. So: Speak Your Peace! #
• OMG interviewing a totally nice civil society coordinator. I wonder if he's done street-medic. Betcha not. But he's "nice", so … @ CTV # G20 #
• Time … time! Time stamp your stuff, please. (YouTube http://youtu.be/09BD_bPP-2A?a) #
• Triggering the storm: "#G20 confrontation at University and Elm" > http://bit.ly/dflWeG < police block peaceful protest @ CBCNewsdesk @CTV #
• # g20reports – Things are settling down near Queen's Park. If the hand-drummers gather, they will come! #
• @ KenChapman46 What I think is more telling / incisive: how to explain the surprise? Who, pray tell, could be surprised? Smacks of cant. in reply to KenChapman46 #
• For the record, and this is boilerplate: what offends me about BlackBloc tactics, simply: it's smash&run. No sort of militance there. # G20 #
• And w/o the hashtag: most non-BlackBloc kidz I meet have just given up. They know their parents, and their bosses. And they feel defeated. #
• @ CBCNewsDesk calls it a "show-down". Are they illiterate? Or just # yuppies in propaganda-mode? I say the latter. # G20 G20reports #
• @ CTV – Downtown occupied by small group of people? That small group is gone. Will you say that? That BlackBlock is gone? Your reporter did. #
• @ TorontoPolice I surely hope BB presence didn't take you by surprise. Specific movement, yes of course … but … gadd … #
• For the record, BlackBloc has /always/ used splinter movement as core tactic. Don't be deceived: no great surprises here. # G20 #
• # G20 – Police singling out individuals along the streets; one taken down at Queen's Park. #
• # G20 – Snatch and grab happening throughout downtown area. (When it was my turn I was tackled from behind. Shockin', it was!) #
• @ PlanCanada – After Nth event c/w BlackBloc I have a question: how come you don't have plans? Why aren't you gathering right now? # G20 in reply to PlanCanada #
• # G20 – Folk in Queen's Park gathered quietly are being pushed back by forces c/w horses. #
• # G20 – Horses charging in Queen's Park #
• # G20 – @ CBC called it show-down. Want a show-down? Keep pushing people peacefully gathered. "Police state; love it or leave it" #
• # Yuppies could easily have come up with contingency planning for social activity Saturday. Did they? Or just whine/whinge about BB? # G20 #
• "Civil order" … turning the whole of TO core into militarized zone is police plan? Wow … as dumb as BlackBloc! # G20 #
• @ CBCNewsDesk – You're actually getting reporting from Gillespie! "Deliberate tactic to clear Queen's Park", just so. # G20 #
• BTW typical snatch & grab is like rough game of touch football. Don't blow things out of proportion. # G20 #
• Dear Mayor Miller – Creating a police only zone is 1 way to do it. The other way is to pretend we live in a democracy. It's an option. # G20 #
• 1st: pass expanded polic powers w/o announcement; 2nd: transform downtown into police only zone. So: what do we know how to do well? # G20 #
• # G20 – Police charging totally peaceful gathering in Queen's Park. #
• "Guilty until manifestly proven innocent" … Canada will lecture such as Russia and Saudi Arabia? # farce #G20 #
• Nice kidz running in panic … from what, BlackBloc? goons? Taliban? No: Canadian police in Queen's Park. # Yuppies never look. # G20 #
• @ RCMP – RFE: get people who's ideological bias isn't so operationally significant. #
• When I got my plastic bullet the phalanx charged down near-empty street. I was waving a white flag and bandana calling "MedEvac!" He fired. #
• wow cops really got no rhyhm # G20 #
• So: the cops (yet again … not first time) allow BlackBloc activity and now will impose Gestapo area clearances. # G20 G20reports #
• # G20 #G8 yet again become demonstration / exercise of police tactics. Civil society? /What/ civil society. # yuppies make me sick. # G20 #
• # G20 – The mistake was to move away from Queen and Spadina. Give the cops an inch and they take miles and miles and miles! #
• Police to Civil Society: Screw you … you're all bums. # G20 G20reports #
• # G20 – Absolutely no way this is last minute planning. This is "Okay, so after BlackBloc puts on their show, we own the town." #
• Hey Ontario! No way the cops wudda dared try this stunt in Quebec City! @ CBCNewsDesk #
• Meanwhile @ CTV shows burning cruiser for 8th time the past 15 minutes. C'mon, really: main-stream media sux ass. # G20 #

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